JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill received almost $40 million of federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office.

McCaskill's Republican challenger, Todd Akin, claims the payments represent a "conflict of interest and a breach of trust" with voters. McCaskill says "the accusation is terribly unfair and distorted."

McCaskill's financial reports show her husband, Joseph Shepard, earned between $400,000 and $2.6 million in income from the businesses that received federal payments from 2007 through 20011.

McCaskill voted for some, but not all, of the bills that funded the federal housing and agriculture departments, which provide the housing subsidies. McCaskill says many of those housing contracts existed before she won election in 2006, and much of the income came from non-government sources.

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